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Election 2008: Vote Marshside

Posted by on May 1, 2008 5:55 PM | 

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Mrs D had a shredder when I got home, so Dempsey Towers wasn't a safe place to be.
Marshside it was then for an hour or so in the late afternoon - lovely bright sun, but a cool south westerly wind.
Reed Warbler singing in the SSSI, a pair of Ruddy Ducks at the bottom of Marshside One, and the male Garganey viewable from the Hesketh Road platform as it dozed south of Nels.
Mind you, with an eyestripe like that, it's probably visible from outer space.
Speaking of outer space, if one of those shady folks with rosettes confronts you this evening, make sure they can offer the following:
* Compulsory wader i.d. lessons for all schoolchildren
* Free wigeon for pensioners
* Marsh grass for all gardens
If they can't live up to these promises, vote for the other ones.
Ahem, now I've got that out of my system, 34 Swifts feeding over Marshside One, and loads of Meadow Pipits displaying.
Reed Buntings singing away too.

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Sedgies a bit muted this afternoon, maybe the wind kept them down.
6 Wheatears in front of Sandgrounders Hide and another female around the peninsula.
Blackwits in fine condition now.

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Swallows and House Martins going through still.
A female House Sparrow on the corner of Marshside Road by the Junction Pool - not a bird you see everyday on the marsh.
Large flocks of Woodpigeons feeding at the back of Marshside Two and Crossens Marsh.
And that's about it.
Remember: Vote Marshside.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...

Comments (3)

derek forshaw wrote...

A single male Dotterel at Curlew Lane, Burscough 3.00 to 3.40 this afternoon. Excellent views from the car.
Still there when I left. 8 Wheatear here also. 11 more Wheatear at Sollom Moss.
At Marshside this evening everything in small numbers: - 10 Dunlin and a Little Stint at Pollys, and a second Little Stint on its own at the back of M2.
10 Ruff, but only 6 Golden Plover and not many BTGs. 8 Wheatears and a male Yellow Wag on M2 (Others had apparently seen 3 yellows and 12 whites. They must have been hiding from me, as was the Garganey.

Posted by: derek forshaw  | May 1, 2008 8:56 PM

Lisa wrote...

I made only my 2nd trip to Marshside today to tick the Avocets. Need to try and get over more often.
Got the male Garganey, Reed Bunting, Golden Plover and what looked like a single male Ruff, but wasn't 100%.
Caught a glimpse of Whitethroat on the corner of Hesketh Road.
Also got Linnet and Jackdaw when walking back along the front to the station.
Saw a single male Linnet in a park in Waterloo when I got back.
Few Common Tern at Seaforth, plenty of Wheatear, Lapwing with 4 chicks. Little Gull also in past week.

Posted by: Lisa  | May 1, 2008 9:38 PM

ron jackson wrote...

I was down the boozer last night ostensibly to give John Bannon the tenner I owed him but he wasn't there and neither, as you know, were you!
Barry Mac gave me the news re the demise, deliberate demise, of the Bowland Eagle Owls.
I can understand concern re Hen Harriers but feel the real problem is gamekeepers and their grouse moor owning employers not a pair of birds doing what comes naturally.
I also don't hold with the crap about "never a native, nothing in the fossil record etc etc" being used as justification for culling.
I accept that the Bowland birds were escapees or their progeny but don't believe that anyone, whether employed by the RSPB, Natural England , BTO w.h.y.or not, is sufficiently expert to decide whether such a species has ever occurred naturally or ever will occur naturally. Ornithology, thank God, is full of puzzles, conundrums, the unknown and the unknoweable.
I also heard yesterday that the two Harris' Hawks hanging out in Cross Bank Covert , Banks, actually bred and laid a clutch of eggs, only for the female to be re-captured and the eggs removed.
I think by the people/organisation also responsible for the Bowland actions, and this adjacent to a National Nature Reserve that permits the shooting of wildfowl.
Mmmm! If all this official concern about the possible impact of escapes then why allow the things into the country in the first place?
Banks Marsh BHG breeding numbers down this year compared with the last, 2006, census.
We found 4560 nests give or take a coupla hundred on Tuesday compared with 7102 two years ago. Lots of these are vulnerable to the imminent high tides particularly if accompanied by westerlies.
Half a dozen Med Gulls with the BHGs, almost certain breeders but virtually impossible to distinguish one species eggs from the other. No sign yet of terns, plenty of LBB , fewer Herring Gulls and a few GBB pairs.
23 Eiders counted there yesterday,
Ron

Posted by: ron jackson  | May 3, 2008 8:26 AM

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